Injured troops from Iraq were flown into Leeds Bradford International Airport in Yeadon yesterday.

Two of the troops were taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary to be treated for their injuries and another 11 were transferred to barracks across the country.

The 13 casualties - 12 men and one woman - flew into the Yeadon airport yesterday on a specially commissioned Monarch 757 aircraft from Cyprus.

All of them were assessed by NHS doctors at the airport to decide if they needed immediate hospital treatment locally or could be dealt with at their own bases.

The flight landed at around 9.50am with holidaymakers and businesspeople looking on amid a huge police and army presence. The police, traffic wardens and soldiers had been at the airport and on surrounding roads since early morning yesterday.

An ambulance was believed to have taken the two soldiers to BRI and a number of medics from the flight were driven away in two taxis.

Bradford Royal Infirmary was warned in advance that two soldiers would be admitted yesterday - one with a fractured leg and the other with a hand injury.

An NHS triage team was on hand at the airport to decide whether the 13 troops needed hospital treatment locally or could be sent straight home or to their own barracks across the UK. The families of the troops, a mixture of Army and RAF personnel, had also been warned in advance that their loved ones were on their way home.

Army spokesman Captain Charlie Mortlock, of 15th Northeast Brigade, based in York, was at the airport to co-ordinate the incoming flight.

He said: "Casualties ranged from normal every day illnesses experienced in every day civilian life. These injuries were not battle injuries and the people on board were not necessarily based locally."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said that the soldiers could be suffering from a whole host of ailments.

"It could be a range of things, like heatstroke, or fractures, but they could be anything that they could have suffered from over here and they just happened to be over there.

"The rule is that anyone not fit for combat or work over a period of four days is sent back.

"This airport was warned about 48 hours in advance and it was chosen because of its proximity to local hospitals and it is one of many that have been used for incoming troops.

"People have been out there waiting to come back but we have not wanted to put a strain on any services over here so some flights arranged for over the weekend were cancelled."

Bradford hospitals have been on permanent stand-by ready to taken wounded military personnel.

A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority said all hospitals in the region were prepared for the eventuality of having to take patients from the Gulf.

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